IAMX - Krefeld 2006

Kulturfabrik, Krefeld, Germany
1st December 2006
IAMX and Warren Suicide

IAMX, the “dark side of the SNEAKER PIMPS”, are on tour in Germany. What to expect? Definitely a concert of a special kind. Less a real band but rather a piece of art mixed of music and visual conception, IAMX show impressively that also an electronic band can present a grandiose and powerful show. Support band for the German tour were WARREN SUICIDE from Berlin.


Warren Suicide

“Hello, hello, my name is Warren Suicide”. That’s also the start of the lyrics of the first ever WARREN SUICIDE song. And it’s also the best start to introduce the Berlin based electro-punk-terrorist trio – just because writing this track was the precise moment when it all started a few years ago. While singer Nackt came up with that track, Cherie sat next room drawing that figure in her scrapbook what later became a trademark of the band. The band is making its way. BBC invited them to a radio gig, PLACEBO and many others were remixed by them, YOKO ONO loves them. And now they are finally on the first continuous tour through Germany, Austria and rest of Europe together with IAMX. WARREN SUICIDE are Cherie (vocals, visuals), Nackt (vocals, guitar) and Bert-ill (drums, vocals). http://www.warrensuicide.com/ / http://www.myspace.com/warrensuicide 



Music
WARREN SUICIDE impress with their mix of Electro-fuzz, Punk, Pop and Comic and cause excited confusion with their visuals. The first fulltime album was released 2006 in UK and if you listen to it in a whole you know that WARREN SUICIDE can be hardly compared to something else. The music is rocking electronic which is anarchistic and confusing and never calculable. The show started with a mind-blowing noise coming out from the machines and the Megaphone singer Nackt was keeping. Somehow you feel reminded of a mixture of EINSTÜRZENDE NEUBAUTEN and ATARI TEENAGE RIOT. There was not more necessary than pushing drums, a guitar and a notebook to pull the audience on their side. Cherie and Nackt shared the lyrics and I must say that the hard male voice and the softer but also very strong female voice were working perfectly together. If you’re going to a WARREN SUICIDE show, you can only expect what you don’t know yet. Cherie sings like an angel while Bert-ill trashes up his drums and Nackt lams one guitar after the other. The sound was loud – maybe a bit too loud – but somehow it had to be like that for the energetic music.



Performance
The first lines of the show - “Hello, hello my name is Warren Suicide... I want to take you on a night ride...” – were motto of the whole evening; because especially the visuals were taking you away. The visuals are a very important part of the WARREN SUICIDE show and in the center stands always that little figure Cherie drew once. Just at the beginning, Nackt was throwing stickers into the audience showing just the head of that figure. This head also decorated the laptop and the bass drum. Video projections were shown on a big screen in the back of stage. They were wild, colorful, weird and totally crazy. Somehow they could have been created in heavy drug intoxication. To make those projections work even better, front lights were dimmed to a minimum. But not only were the videos crazy, also the band acted crazy and wild. What a start of the evening! Heavy applause showed that not only I was impressed by the show which was a journey through the darker alleyways of WARREN SUICIDE’s shared artistic vision.



Setlist
01. Intro
02. Warren Suicide
03. Twelve
04. Land of the free
05. I know you
06. Butcher Boy
07. Run Run
08. Signal
09. Not loud enough
10. Fulford

Rating
Music: 9
Performance: 9
Sound: 7
Light: 9
Total: 8.7






IAMX

IAMX was founded 2003 by mastermind and singer of the SNEAKER PIMPS Chris Corner. First planned as a side project, IAMX now takes more and more room and develops to Corner’s main project. IAMX is not really a band; it is the solo project of Corner which is supported by different musicians on stage during the live performances. New Musical Express and Q-Magazine celebrate IAMX as the “next big thing”. And I guess in a year from now on, the Kulturfabrik might be too small for the band.



The debut album “Kiss & Swallow” was released 2004 and contains 13 songs which follow the electronic way of the last SNEAKER PIMPS album “Bloodsport”. Melancholic, dark, danceable and hymnal – the IAMX songs have quite some hit potential even though they are so different in mood. The second album “The Alternative” was released in autumn 2006. Also the first album “Kiss & Swallow” was re-released in November 2006 accompanied by the single release “Spit it out”. http://www.iamx.co.uk/ / http://www.myspace.com/iamx



Music
After the intro, when first the band and then Chris himself entered the stage, the show started with the title track for the current album – “The Alternative” – just followed by the title track of the debut album – “Kiss & Swallow”. Despite “Kiss and Swallow”, the first halt of the main set was reserved for songs out of the current album which follows the way of the first album and develops the synthesizer sound further by adding some rougher elements. “Bring me back a dog” – the next song – was very electronic but also rough edged with additional female chant added by the keyboard player. It was followed by “The negative Sex” with the dominating guitar sounds and straight drums and “President” which came very dramatically in its deep wind instruments. The show went on a bit calmer with the synthetic “Song of imaginary beings” and “This will make you love again”. While Chris Corner usually plays his keyboard passages with his back turned to the audience, he changed to the keyboard of his female band mate and played some kind of acoustic version together with her while the rest of the band had left the stage. It was a moment that gave you the creeps. The next three songs – “Mercy”, “Sailor” and “Skin Vision” – were taken from the debut album. “Mercy” is a calm and poppy song, but never boring at all. The following “Sailor” is rougher and more edged while “Skin Vision” could also have been found on the latest SNEAKER PIMPS album. The remaining two songs of the main set – the dynamic “Nightlife” and the recent single release and ear candy piece “Spit it out” – were taken from the current album.



After a short break it was time for all in all five more songs – all despite one taken from the first album “Kiss & Swallow”. The encores were started with “I like pretending” and followed by “After every Party I die” which described the evening very well. The band left the stage again but returned very quickly for the final three songs starting with “You stick it in me” – sung by female voice and Chris presenting the song with a slightly gay intention what could bring a smile to your face. During “Missile”, Chris reached his vocal climax. You felt that he lived that song. Last but not least, “Your Joy is my Low” ended the evening. Chris’ voice was just perfect during the whole show – it sounded powerful, strong, soft, tragic, and a bit feminine – just how the songs demanded it. An extra touch was added by the female vocals of the pretty keyboard player.



Performance
After seeing IAMX in daylight during Bochum Total, I was very curious how the show would be like in a club. I knew that visuals were very important. Knowing that Chris is a real entertainer, I looked very much forward the performance. And the performance in Krefeld was extraordinary. Not only for the audience but also for the band because they played about 100 minutes instead of planned 70 minutes. When the beamer started to project pictures to the screen, the band entered the stage. Last one was Chris Corner dressed in black in kind of a tight suit and a black hat – as thin as a rake. But you felt it from the very first second: if someone belongs onto a stage, it would be Mr. Corner. This man is a pure entertainer who can deal with his audience very well. Anything was just perfect: his attitude, his voice, the music, the visuals and the audience – even though there could have been a bit more people. IAMX deserve more than about 300 fans in front of the stage. Like during WARREN SUICIDE, the visuals during the IAMX show were of great importance. Sometimes colorful, sometimes dark and drastic; they always underlined the songs very well.



When Chris left the stage after the main set under big applause, some fans within the audience grabbed the microphone to intonate some lines of his songs – not really ear candy at all. Was that the reason for the band to return that fast? ;) During the second encore, the show was reduced to the max for “Missile” and just the lyrics of the song were projected to the screen. After this song, Chris surprisingly left the band while his band mates started the last song. But he returned very fast to present the final song “Your joy is my low” and released a very satisfied audience afterwards. After the show, you could hear lots of compliments everywhere. And also the “VIPs” Rascal from ROTERSAND or Myk from THE FAIR SEX were very impressed. I am sure we’ll see IAMX very soon on bigger stages. Go to see them now as long as you have the chance of an intimate club gig!



Setlist
01. Intro
02. The Alternative (The Alternative)
03. Kiss & Swallow (Kiss & Swallow)
04. Bring me back a Dog (The Alternative)
05. The negative Sex (The Alternative)
06. President (The Alternative)
07. Song of imaginary beings (The Alternative)
08. This will make you love again (The Alternative)
09. Mercy (Kiss & Swallow)
10. Sailor (Kiss & Swallow)
11. Skin Vision (Kiss & Swallow)
12. Nightlife (The Alternative)
13. Spit it out (The Alternative)
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14. I like pretending (Kiss & Swallow)
15. After every Party I die (The Alternative)
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16. You stick it in me (Kiss & Swallow)
17. Missile (Kiss & Swallow)
18. Your Joy is my Low (Kiss & Swallow)

Rating
Music: 10
Performance: 10
Sound: 8
Light: 9
Total: 9.6





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